A semifinal is the here and now for the Australia-England rivalry, not the Ashes
Wednesday, 18:00
Australia v England
H 1.91, D 7.5, A 3.5
Oddschecker.com
This is Australia’s Matildas against England’s Lionesses. The Women’s World Cup semifinals. The here and the now.
Both teams want to be clear, it’s not one of those clashes for the Ashes that have come to represent an intense international sporting rivalry dating back to the 1800s.
That began with the burning of some bails — small wooden pegs that sit atop cricket stumps — after a team of English gentry lost to a squad of colonial upstarts from Australia.
This is about an Australia team led by superstar striker Sam Kerr — who has been injured for most of the tournament but will play some part in the game — against England defender Millie Bright and her European champions.
Kerr and Bright are teammates at Chelsea and have combined to win titles for the London-based club, but they’re playing off here for a spot in the World Cup final against Spain.
England lost semifinals at the 2015 and 2019 Women’s World Cups. Australia is into the final four for the first time, and aiming to be just the second host to win the title on home soil.
Women’s soccer has been making its own history in England, where the Lionesses’ run to the European Championship title in 2022 captured the nation’s attention. And it’s making history in Australia, where the Matildas have twice attracted crowds exceeding 75,000 in this tournament and will again tonight.
The 7-6 penalty shootout win over fifth-ranked France last Saturday in Brisbane was the highest-
rating program on Australian television in 2023. Local media reported that the shootout pulled the biggest domestic audience for a sports event since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
As much as fans and the media have tried to frame it a fresh chapter in the Ashes, an England squad with a Dutch head coach and a Matildas roster with a Swedish head coach have repeatedly said their biggest rivalries in women’s soccer extend well beyond these two countries.
As soon as England had clinched a 2-1 comeback win over Colombia in the quarterfinals to ensure a match against Australia, coach Sarina Wiegman was asked what she knew about the Ashes rivalry. She said she’d check with the team and staff.
On Tuesday, at a pre-match news conference in Sydney that ran into the 21st minute of Spain’s 2-1 semifinal win over Sweden in New Zealand, Wiegman said the feedback related to cricket and rugby and netball, and “we didn’t feel that rivalry that much.”
Bright said she couldn’t think of a previous England vs. Australia encounter, in any sport, sticking in her memory. What she’s looking forward to is playing in front of a capacity crowd at Stadium Australia, despite knowing her opposition will have overwhelming support.
“As an England team there’s always pressure and it’s something you embrace,” she said.
Bright recalled the extra lift big crowds gave England in the European Championship.
“It’s the semifinal. It’s the World Cup,” she said. “You want that environment, you want it to be intense, you want it to be noisy.”
England’s only loss under Wiegman, who guided the Netherlands to the final in 2019, was against Australia in a friendly in April.
For 10th-ranked Australia, that 2-0 away win was part of a sequence that also included wins over Spain and France that boosted confidence. JOHN PYE, BRISBANE, MDT/AP
